Friday, January 4, 2013

A science experiment

Please pardon my messy hair. :)

The kids have been going a bit stir crazy, having to stay indoors all the time because of the cold weather we are experiencing. Here in Northern Utah, when a high pressure system settles over us in the winter, it traps cold air at the bottom of the mountain valleys and becomes very stagnant. It's know as an "inversion," because the higher in altitude you go, the warmer it will become. This trapped air gets quickly filled with pollution from all the cars and cows and wood burning stoves etc, and we have bad smog, making it even worse for being outdoors. But today, we thought we'd try a little science experiment with the cold air. I was skeptical, as I thought it had to be even colder or windier to work, but lo and behold, we got a pretty good cloud of white snow when we tossed our cups of boiling water! The kids enjoyed sitting in front of the window and watching me make clouds of snow outside. Good times.